DESCRIPTION

These low-level routines must be called by programs that
have to deal directly with the terminfo database to handle
certain terminal capabilities, such as programming function
keys. For all other functionality, curses routines are more
suitable and their use is recommended.
Initially, setupterm should be called. Note that setupterm
is automatically called by initscr and newterm. This de-
fines the set of terminal-dependent variables [listed in
terminfo(5)]. The terminfo variables lines and columns are
initialized by setupterm as follows: If use_env(FALSE) has
been called, values for lines and columns specified in ter-minfo are used. Otherwise, if the environment variables
LINES and COLUMNS exist, their values are used. If these
environment variables do not exist and the program is run-
ning in a window, the current window size is used. Other-
wise, if the environment variables do not exist, the values
for lines and columns specified in the terminfo database are
used.
The header files curses.h and term.h should be included (in
this order) to get the definitions for these strings,
numbers, and flags. Parameterized strings should be passed
through tparm to instantiate them. All terminfo strings [in-
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cluding the output of tparm] should be printed with tputs or
putp. Call the reset_shell_mode to restore the tty modes
before exiting [see curs_kernel(3)]. Programs which use
cursor addressing should output enter_ca_mode upon startup
and should output exit_ca_mode before exiting. Programs
desiring shell escapes should call
reset_shell_mode and output exit_ca_mode before the shell is
called and should output enter_ca_mode and call
reset_prog_mode after returning from the shell.
The setupterm routine reads in the terminfo database, ini-
tializing the terminfo structures, but does not set up the
output virtualization structures used by curses. The termi-
nal type is the character string term; if term is null, the
environment variable TERM is used. All output is to file
descriptor fildes which is initialized for output. If errret
is not null, then setupterm returns OK or ERR and stores a
status value in the integer pointed to by errret. A return
value of OK combined with status of 1 in errret is normal.
If ERR is returned, examine errret:
1 means that the terminal is hardcopy, cannot be
used for curses applications.
0 means that the terminal could not be found, or
that it is a generic type, having too little in-
formation for curses applications to run.
-1 means that the terminfo database could not be
found.
If errret is null, setupterm prints an error message upon
finding an error and exits. Thus, the simplest call is:
setupterm((char *)0, 1, (int *)0);,
which uses all the defaults and sends the output to stdout.
The setterm routine is being replaced by setupterm. The
call:
setupterm(term, 1, (int *)0)
provides the same functionality as setterm(term). The set-term routine is included here for BSD compatibility, and is
not recommended for new programs.
The set_curterm routine sets the variable cur_term to nterm,
and makes all of the terminfo boolean, numeric, and string
variables use the values from nterm. It returns the old
value of cur_term.
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The del_curterm routine frees the space pointed to by oterm
and makes it available for further use. If oterm is the
same as cur_term, references to any of the terminfo boolean,
numeric, and string variables thereafter may refer to in-
valid memory locations until another setupterm has been
called.
The restartterm routine is similar to setupterm and initscr,
except that it is called after restoring memory to a previ-
ous state (for example, when reloading a game saved as a
core image dump). It assumes that the windows and the input
and output options are the same as when memory was saved,
but the terminal type and baud rate may be different. Ac-
cordingly, it saves various tty state bits, does a setup-
term, and then restores the bits.
The tparm routine instantiates the string str with parame-
ters pi. A pointer is returned to the result of str with
the parameters applied.
The tputs routine applies padding information to the string
str and outputs it. The str must be a terminfo string vari-
able or the return value from tparm, tgetstr, or tgoto.
affcnt is the number of lines affected, or 1 if not applica-
ble. putc is a putchar-like routine to which the characters
are passed, one at a time.
The putp routine calls tputs(str, 1, putchar). Note that the
output of putp always goes to stdout, not to the fildes
specified in setupterm.
The vidputs routine displays the string on the terminal in
the video attribute mode attrs, which is any combination of
the attributes listed in curses(3). The characters are
passed to the putchar-like routine putc.
The vidattr routine is like the vidputs routine, except that
it outputs through putchar.
The vid_attr and vid_puts routines correspond to vidattr and
vidputs, respectively. They use a set of arguments for
representing the video attributes plus color, i.e., one of
type attr_t for the attributes and one of short for the
color_pair number. The vid_attr and vid_puts routines are
designed to use the attribute constants with the WA_ prefix.
The opts argument is reserved for future use. Currently, ap-
plications must provide a null pointer for that argument.
The mvcur routine provides low-level cursor motion. It
takes effect immediately (rather than at the next refresh).
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The tigetflag, tigetnum and tigetstr routines return the
value of the capability corresponding to the terminfocap-name passed to them, such as xenl.
The tigetflag routine returns the value -1 if capname is not
a boolean capability, or 0 if it is canceled or absent from
the terminal description.
The tigetnum routine returns the value -2 if capname is not
a numeric capability, or -1 if it is canceled or absent from
the terminal description.
The tigetstr routine returns the value (char *)-1 if capname
is not a string capability, or 0 if it is canceled or absent
from the terminal description.
The capname for each capability is given in the table column
entitled capname code in the capabilities section of termin-fo(5).
char *boolnames, *boolcodes, *boolfnameschar *numnames, *numcodes, *numfnameschar *strnames, *strcodes, *strfnames
These null-terminated arrays contain the capnames, the
termcap codes, and the full C names, for each of the termin-fo variables.

NOTES

The setupterm routine should be used in place of setterm. It
may be useful when you want to test for terminal capabili-
ties without committing to the allocation of storage in-
volved in initscr.
Note that vidattr and vidputs may be macros.

PORTABILITY

The function setterm is not described in the XSI Curses
standard and must be considered non-portable. All other
functions are as described in the XSI curses standard.
In System V Release 4, set_curterm has an int return type
and returns OK or ERR. We have chosen to implement the XSI
Curses semantics.
In System V Release 4, the third argument of tputs has the
type int (*putc)(char).
The XSI Curses standard prototypes tparm with a fixed number
of parameters, rather than a variable argument list. This
implementation uses a variable argument list. Portable ap-
plications should provide 9 parameters after the format;
zeroes are fine for this purpose.
XSI notes that after calling mvcur, the curses state may not
match the actual terminal state, and that an application
should touch and refresh the window before resuming normal
curses calls. Both ncurses and System V Release 4 curses im-
plement mvcur using the SCREEN data allocated in either in-itscr or newterm. So though it is documented as a terminfo
function, mvcur is really a curses function which is not
well specified.